The Indianapolis Cultural Trail, this segment is along Virginia and Woodland Ave heading southwest into Fountain Square. Matt Kryger / The Star

It took 12 years to go eight miles, but don't underestimate just how far Indianapolis has come while dreaming about, building and completing the Downtown Cultural Trail.

In a city and state that desperately need to promote exercise, the trail is an open invitation to bike, jog or walk through attractive and growing neighborhoods, past works of public art, and in the company of neighbors who aren't separated by windshields and pavement.

The trail also serves to connect neighborhoods and people, and in doing so helps pump vitality into the urban core. Mass Ave is now buzzing on most nights. Fountain Square has sprung to life, with restaurants and shops opening along the trail and visitors wandering from spot to spot. Many people, to be certain, worked many years to revive both of those areas and others before the trail was born, but it's no coincidence that the rate of growth accelerated just as the Cultural Trail neared completion.

The trail, which officially opened Friday, is the latest example of the type of public-private partnerships that have made great things happen in this city for decades. It started with a private vision -- cast by Brian Payne, president and CEO of the Central Indiana Community Foundation, who pitched the idea in 2001. It sprang to life with the help of $27.5 million in private donations, most notably $15 million from Gene and Marilyn Glick. Federal grants, worth $35.5 million, accounted for the rest of the construction costs.

Now that the trail is completed, it's not too soon to ask what comes next? Payne says he's pondering some ideas. Other community leaders no doubt are as well.

With that in mind, here are three great needs in our community that deserve the same sort of partnerships that brought a Super Bowl to Indy, revived Downtown and now have made the Cultural Trail a reality:

1. Education: As The Star has made clear through its Our Children/Our City campaign for the past three years, the educational needs in our city and state are great. Indiana simply can't compete effectively when our workforce is 40th in the nation in education attainment and when we continue to lose thousands of children every year to academic failure. How do we come together as a community on a whole new level to change that reality?

2. Economy: As the state manufacturing base eroded, incomes in Indiana grew at a slower pace than almost everywhere else in the nation. The average worker in our state now earns 86 cents for every $1 paid to a typical American employee. The stalled economy affects almost every aspect of life in our state -- from personal health to education. Central Indiana, while overall faring better than other parts of the state, is not immune to the same economic forces that squeeze paychecks in Terre Haute and Connersville. Rebuilding our state's economy will take a long-term commitment to strengthening education, retraining workers, enhancing the quality of life to attract and keep talented workers, and tackling our collective poor health.

3. Health: The health statistics in our state and city are abysmal. From obesity to smoking to high blood pressure and diabetes, far too many Hoosiers are slowly killing themselves, eroding their quality of life and driving up health-care costs. Changing that will take a creative, unified and long-term effort.

What do education, the economy and our health have to do with an urban trail? Just as it took vision, creativity and the willingness to take reasonable risks to build the Cultural Trail, those same qualities are necessary to make progress on each of our big three challenges.

Hit those trails together now? Yes, because we have no time to waste.

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Email this article

Editorial: Here's what happens in Indy when we dream big

It took 12 years to go eight miles, but don't underestimate just how far Indianapolis has come while dreaming about, building and completing the Downtown Cultural Trail.